This Saturday, May 30, at 3:30 pm at the Roca Theater at Belen you will have the opportunity to experience some of the best music the Cuban-American community has to offer in honor of the late pianist, Olga Diaz Pancier. All proceeds benefit the Regis House.  Contact information is on the photo below. 

Today my friend, "Cigar Mike" Pancier (as he is known on Babalublog where he is also a contributor) is a year older. Michael is an amazing photographer whose passion is avian photography as well as all the gifts that Mother Nature has given us. So, I take this opportunity not only to wish him a HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! but to share the link to his photo blog where you can check out his awesome work with your own eyes.  As Michael once told me when I said I had never watched a sunrise, "God doesn't like it when you don't take the time to appreciate what He has made."  I am grateful to him for all the gifts from God that I get to see through his eyes. Here is one of his beautiful sunrise shots.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, chico!

Pancier's Photo Blog

Poor raúl and fidel castro. Another year they are ignored by David Wallechinsky, listmaker extraordinaire in his Ten Worst Dictators list.  Oh the shame, the stigma they must endure at the International Dictators Summit- being pointed at and whispered about.  I can hear them now. "Ha, ha! Look at those loser castros- they don't have what it takes to be one of the worst dictators!" "Coño! I had over 10,000 innocent people put to death and I can't make this damn list? I jail people for trying to read books and they STILL ignore me? What do I have to do, kill a puppy?!" fidel would mutter as Raúl pushed him in his wheelchair out the door. 

Now, in 2006, fidel did make the Twenty Worst Dictator's List in Wallechinsky's book "Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators," yet the brothers were noticeably absent from his 2007 list. In 2008, Raúl made the top 20, coming in at 18, but not the elite Top 10.  What's a dictator got to do to get noticed?  Kill thousands?  Oh... Forbid his people from visiting hotels and restaurants in the tourist area?  Oh, wait... Deny citizens access to the Internet?  Um... Not allow people to leave the country?  Oops! Jail people for speaking out against the government? Er....  Seems like all the criteria has been met.  I guess the brothers didn't woo Wallechinsky enough.

You can read the Parade Magazine article HERE.

I have always liked Ron Silver and not because, like me, he had a B.A. in Spanish and used to be a Spanish teacher. (He also had a degree in and spoke Chinese!)  When I was young, I used to confuse him with the guy who played Luis on Sesame Street. He also reminded me a little of Pacino, although his real name is Ron Zimelman, and he was Jewish, not Italian nor Latino. I became a fan after seeing "Reversal of Fortune" in the early 90's. After 9/11 when he decided to support President Bush (and spoke at the 2004 RNC) and did an about face from being a Democrat, I couldn't help but like him even more.

Today the Tony award winner and Emmy nominee died of esophageal cancer at the age of 66. Ron had also starred in the West Wing, the movies "Ali," "Silkwood" and "Reversal of Fortune," among others, and narrated "Farenhype 9/11," a take-off on Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11."  He credits Michael Moore with helping him to switch from Democrat to Republican, calling Moore "a charlatan in a clown suit."  How can I not like a guy who says that?

But backing President Bush cost Ron jobs in liberal Hollywood and he did not work for 10 months after announcing his support of the war on terror. He told the AP back then: "It's affected me very badly. I can't point to a person or a job I've lost, but this community is not very pluralistic."

So, for as righteous as Hollywood would like the world to think it is, for all its breast-beating and demands for charity to those far away, it has no problem turning its back on one of its own because he had a different idealogy. I don't doubt for a second that there are many others like Ron Silver who did not have the courage to come out of the Republican "closet" because it would cost them their jobs.  Even Democrat turned-Republican Dennis Miller has said that he is not as welcome as he once was among the Hollywood elite.  Doesn't seem like a big loss to me.

Ron Silver was a man of conviction, and Hollywood has a lost a great actor- he will be missed.

Cigar Aficionado ran a special report on Cuba in its February, 2009 and its pro-normalizing relations with Cuba raised the hackles on exiles reading it.  And rightly so.  The anti-US slant and the "let's open up trade and our influences will produce change!" message is woefully misguided.

My friend in Washington, Jorge Ponce, was among those seething over the article and he decided that the "pen is mightier than the sword" and he took the author of the "Memo to President Obama" article, Julia Swieg, who works for the Council of Foreign Relations, to task.  His article will appear in the March, 2009 issue of the magazine, but he gave me an "advance copy."

Thanks Jorge, for pubicly addressing this on behalf of your fellow Cuban exiles.

"In her article in the February 2009 issue (Memo to President Obama), Julia Sweig, from the Council of Foreign Relations, encourages President Obama to lift the embargo that the U.S. has maintained on Cuba for nearly fifty years.  She argues that this is in the American national interest.  I disagree.

The goal of Cuban authorities has been to maintain themselves in power in perpetuity, even at the expense of improving the living conditions of Cubans, and to undermine the only country that stands in the way -- the United States .

Naturally, those authorities lend support to countries that have the same aspirations. This explains why Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported how Fidel, while visiting Iran in May 2001 -- just four months before Sept. 11 -- proudly proclaimed that " Iran and Cuba , in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees." Just last September, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque indicated that the U.S. embargo had forced Cuba to spend more than $89 billion to get goods and services elsewhere. This is money well spent to keep Americans safe and to keep America on its feet.

Despite many overtures by U.S. administrations to lend a helping hand to the Cuban authorities, they have all been rebuffed.  When President Carter tried to open a U.S. interest section in Cuba, the Cuban Government responded by sending many jail inmates with criminal records and patients with mental illnesses to the United States via the Mariel boatlift. After President Clinton eased up on travel and remittance restrictions,   Havana reciprocated by shooting down two U.S. civilian planes in international waters.  Although President George Bush offered humanitarian aid five times to help out with the ravages of two hurricanes, Raul Castro turned them down.  These examples show that Cuban authorities are not interested in any bilateral agreements with the U.S.  

Thus, it is not the United States that needs to change.  It is the Cuban Government that needs to open up to the free world.  When Cuban authorities free all political prisoners without any quid pro quo’s, call for free elections that are monitored by international organizations, embrace a private economic model, and set up a mechanism for settling U.S. property claims from seizures after the Cuban revolution, it will be appropriate for President  Obama to change previous U.S. policy.  

Jorge E. Ponce ( Burke , VA )

 

I have the article on my site if you'd like to read it.  Here is an excerpt.

Slimy.

Fishy.

Obama...

Sushi??

Thanks to Aymee

According to Nancy Pelosi, that is.  Answering a reporter who asked her if the economic stimulus plan is going too fast, Pelosi responded that for "every month that the stimulus package" (which by the way, gives $335 million for sexually transmitted disease prevention, $350 million for child care on military bases, $20 billion to improve health information technology;$4 billion to improve preventative care Education, including $41 billion for local school districts, and $6 billion to improve broadband Internet access in rural areas, none of which has anything to do with stimulating the economy), "500 million Americans lose their jobs."  FIVE HUNDRED MILLION!  500,000,000!!  A MONTH!!! Holy crap!  As of July, we have 303,824,640 people in the United States so the entire population of our country will be UNEMPLOYED PLUS, I would imagine, all of their children and their children's children and all of the illegal aliens AND all of Mexico as well. And Canada! And Europe! Either that or we will be in an UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE DEFICIT!! GET THAT DAMN PLAN PASSED IN THAT CASE!  Do whatever is needed!  We must save THE WORLD from hitting the unemployment lines!!

Via the Drudge Report, here is the video where Nancy makes this absurd statement.

In other stupid Pelosi news, when George Stephanopolous asked La Nancy how $200 million to be spent on birth control funding (this has been removed from the package) was going to stimulate the economy, she gave this insipid response:

"The family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now, and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those -- one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

So, are we in CHINA now?  We are going to limit the population? Does this lead to mandatory birth control in order to keep welfare moms from having more children?  Does this keep people from having too many children in public schools so that the cost of public education will be reduced?  What exactly does she mean?  Uh, uh, uh..... On the other hand, with FIVE HUNDRED MILLION AMERICANS OUT OF WORK, we probably should limit the population, right?

And they ripped on Governor Palin for her interview answers?  SHESH! 

If Nancy wants birth control in her agenda so bad, maybe she can help pay for it, after all, with her real estate portfolio, vineyard and Apple stock, she's worth close to $50 million.  Don't believe it?  Here is her 2007 tax return.

Ruben Navarrette Jr., of CNN of all places, has a  great piece on La Nancy and the stimulus plan.  You can read it here.

Well, it didn't take long for fidel castro or whoever is writing his articles to demand that the United States return the piece of Cuba known as the Guatanamo Bay Naval Base to Cuba without conditions. With Obama in office not even two weeks, castro has issued the same declaration he has issued to the past 10 presidents: return Guantanamo to Cuba.  He also accused Obama of supporting Israeli genocide against Palestinians.  Mini-fidel, Hugo Chávez, backed up his buddy and urged Obama to give back Guantanamo, which has been leased to the US since 1903 and requires a mutual agreement between Cuba and the US to terminate the lease.

“Not respecting Cuba’s will is an arrogant act and an abuse of immense power against a little country,” castro said.

Although the regime had praised Obama initially, castro wrote this in Thursday's column on cubadebate.cu:

“It is the way our friend Obama has fallen into sharing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians."

The scary part is that while Obama has said he wanted to normalize relations with Cuba, that already fidel is calling him "friend."  As the saying goes, with friends like fidel castro, who needs enemies?

Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele was chosen as head of the Republican National Committee, signaling not just a momentous achievement as the first African-American RNC chairman, but also "the dawn of a new party."

Michael Steele is an attorney in Washington, DC. He was named an Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership in 2005 and received the 2005 Bethune-DuBois Institute Award for his work in the development of quality education in Maryland.

He said today:

"We're going to say to friend and foe alike: 'We want you to be a part of us, we want you to with be with us.' And for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over," Steele said.

"There is not one inch of ground that we're going to cede to anybody," he added.

"This is the dawn of a new party moving in a new direction with strength and conviction."

Steele only needed 85 votes but received 91 votes. One by one, four of the other five candidates dropped out of the race, until it was just him and SC GOP chairman Katon Dawson.

The fifty-year old Steele, born at Andrews Air Force Base, was adopted as an infant. Although he grew up in a family of Democrats, he credits Ronald Reagan and his mother for his decision to become Republican. He is also a practicing Catholic who spent three years in the seminary studying to be a priest. 

You can read more about this history-making event HERE.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the crazy who threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in December, is a hero to some in Iraq.  (Because shoe-chucking is so heroic, but not so much as screaming like a girl when tackled and dragged out.  But I digress.)

In Iraq there is now a giant shoe statue, complete with a poem dedicated to the brave sole soul, erected in Tikrit (Saddam's hometown) in honor of Al Zaidi and his shoddy statement. This is the thanks President Bush gets for getting the Iraqis out from underneath Saddam Hussein's brutal control. There is no more fear of being fed to a wood chipper or gassed, but apparently for some Iraqis, this is preferable to liberation. 

It has been reported that the town authorities in Tikrit have ordered the shoe removed.  I have a suggestion where they can have it placed.

Read more HERE.

What the hell is wrong with people? A Philly radio station is running a "humanitarian" mission to Cuba to help "non-governmental musicians organize and promote their music overseas" and awarding a trip for two to Havana where the lucky pair will have first class accomodations at the Hotel Nacional (where Cubans are not allowed to stay.) Oh but it's a HUMANITARIAN mission!  Righhtttt. Got it.  Whatever it takes, right?  

I don't know how welcome a posse of Americans arriving to help "non-governmental" musicians will be when they get there.  However, "most" expenses are paid so you'd have to bring your own money to line the parts of the castro brothers' pockets that the station doesn't cover. That's a nice chunk of change for them for an eight day stay.

If you would like to go and you don't win, you can shell out $3,900 for the 8 day "adventure" (plus airfare to Miami). Or I guess you can just write a check payable to Murderous Castro Regime, Inc. 

Oh, did I mention this radio station is PUBLIC RADIO?

Here is more info:

A musical journey with David Dye and the World Cafe to

Havana,Cuba

Join David Dye on a humanitarian mission to Havana, Cuba to help non-governmental musicians organize and promote their music overseas. Meet and mingle with independent Cuban musicians, donate musical materials and industry expertise while hearing the musicians’ music and stories through private gatherings and jam sessions.

The trip includes 8 nights of first class accommodations, round trip airfare from Miami to Havana, all ground transportation, entrance fees, many meals and interaction with local musicians and leaders of the independent music industry.

Explore the exciting musical heritage of Cuba with the World Cafe on this amazing adventure and humanitarian effort.

You can check it out here:

http://www.publicradiomail.org/wxpn/events/funddrivecontest_cuba/details.tcl

If I hold my head really tight will it stop it from exploding?  Because I really can't take four more years (or eight!!) of this stuff. Now, at a drugstore near you,

THE CHIA OBAMA

Thanks Aymee!

Ex-Cuban guerrilla Daniel Alarcón Ramírez (also known as "Benigno") has accused fidel of betraying che on orders from the Soviet Union because the Soviets considered che to be a person who was dangerous to their imperialist strategies. 

Alarcón stated in the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" that the Soviet Union and fidel were responsible for che's death.  Castro had sent che with troops to Bolivia, where they were guaranteed to have secret agents and the support of the communists there. But, when they got there they realized that the Bolivian communist party was not going to help them, perhaps on orders from Moscow.  Che was captured and killed while in Bolvia. Alarcón Ramírez  managed to elude the troops and he fled to Chile with two others, with the help of Salvador Allende.

Alarcón Ramírez fled Cuba for Paris in 1996 after realizing he was leading a double life.  He told the paper that che was the most beloved leader of the people, an honorable and a good man.

So clearly, for Alarcón Ramírez, who joined the rebels at age 17 after Batista's troops set fire to his farm in the Sierra Maestraand killed his pregnant, 15-year old wife, fidelismo lost its luster when fidel's right hand man was sacrificed for the cause.  Too bad it took him until 1996 to get out.

That castro would have his good friend and comrade killed is not surprising to me because when I read Alina Fernandez Revuelta's book, "Castro's Daughter," she said that che's daughter, with whom she was friends as a child, said that her mother believed che was sent to Bolivia to die as a martyr for the revolution.  Now that it may have been upon orders from the USSR, it shocks me no less.  Everyone is expendable to castro.

You can read more, in Spanish, here.

I think Israel is one of the United States' most important and trusted allies. (Well, for now, let's see what Obama does to undo that.)  So, I got a little goosebumpy when I saw this picture and article from Fianna Nierstein.  It's the Piazza Montecitorio in Rome, in front of the Italian Parliament.  What you see is loads of Italian friends of Israel on January 14, listening to some 100 members of Italian Parliament talk about the importance of the Israel and its right to defend itself against Hamas. Fianna reports that many members of Parliament said "I love Israel."   You can read more on her website HERE.

VIVA ITALIA!

VIVA ISRAEL!